


Mutant of Death

by Nycto_Owl



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, Mutant Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 20:51:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18698926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nycto_Owl/pseuds/Nycto_Owl
Summary: In a perfect world Tony could imagine himself being the perfect son, but this is not a perfect world and Tony never was close to being a perfect son. He wasn’t even normal.





	Mutant of Death

**Author's Note:**

> I’ll probably come back and make changes to this chapter, not too many though

When Tony was three years old a mutant had saved the president’s life, while another delivered a speech. The world was in shock. Not that Tony cared. He was a toddler. He didn’t even know about the situation nor would he remember it first hand.

 

When Tony learned he had powers he was at an older age. It was after he turned 9, he had let a glass slip out of his hands and he wasn’t wearing shoes or socks, so immediately he realized that glass would require him to get stitches if it were to fall. It was almost like reflex but he was able to catch it without using his hands, it was almost as though he only had to look at the glass to get it to become immobile mid air. He thought his dad would be proud that Tony was special, he could finally live up to the image of Captain America that Howard always planted in his mind. He was special just like Steve Rogers. It was then he found out that wasn’t the case. Apparently Howard only liked special abilities when he was the one who could control the results. 

His mother cried of course. What mother wouldn’t when they find out something is wrong with their child? As Tony got older he came to realize that her reaction wasn’t out of shame, it was out of fear, he knew that now. Maybe Howard felt the same way, he didn’t react the same way Maria did though. Howard showed a lot of anger, rather than teats, he practically threw Tony out of the room once he displayed his gifts. 

He was a boy who could move things with his mind, in their eyes he was just a freak. A creation of Howard Stark gone wrong.

They had quite the serious talk that following night. Tony learned then he was never allowed to tell anyone about his abilities, and under no circumstances was he allowed to use them if he could help it. Of course easier said than done Howard said it would ruin their name, he didn’t talk to Tony much after that. If he ever thought Howard was distant before, it was much worse after that day.

The following months were rough of course, it seemed like there was an episode every other day. He was trying learn how to control his powers, and Howard’s frustrated scolds didn’t help. 

When Tony was ten when he accidentally set their home on fire. He was again playing with his powers, his mother was sitting in the room but she was oblivious, fixated on a novel she was reading, while Tony sat on the floor in front of her, right by the fireplace. He was supposed to be reading a textbook for one of his classes, well he already did that really. He was just rereading it to humor his mother. What he was really doing was playing with his powers.

Tony was a smart kid, as a result he played with things he didn’t understand. It’s how he managed to gain a little more control over his powers. He learned how to use them for his own understanding, while he had no idea how his powers worked, it did help to understand how to use them to gain that control. Which is what he had been doing then. It had started with him turning the pages by just looking at them. Then he started to turn his attention to other objects- one’s his mother wouldn’t notice him moving. He turned to the mantle above the fireplace. Above it were some photos, one family photo, which was one of the few photos they had of all of them together taken just for the sake of a family photo. He’d leave that one alone, the next photo was one of his father and captain America, it was as big as their family photo. He tilted it.

“Oops, I guess he’s not so perfect after all,” Tony mumbled.

“What was that dear?” Maria took her eyes off her book and looked down at Tony. He shrugged.

“I was just reading out loud it helps me understand some words I don’t know, sorry.” He knew all the words in this book by now. Despite his young age, he had a strong vocabulary.

“No worries, sweetie. Keep doing it if it helps you, I know school is difficult.” She sent him a warm smile and returned to her book. He appreciated the encouragement, but Tony was smart and school wasn’t too hard. The people were probably what made it hardest.

He turned his attention back to the picture, then to the fireplace, then to the fire. A thought struck him. He could move things with his mind, what if he could move fire. Tony’s gaze fixated on the fire. There was a pop but he noticed a change in direction with the flame. It was like playing with play dough, the fire formed into a spiral. He even managed to increase its size, he discovered. He also discovered that it was harder to decrease the size. He jumped up, the flames reached the hardwood floor they would have burned him if he hadn’t moved. When his mother looked up again she threw the book and leapt to Tony, grabbing him and carrying him out of the room. She began shouting for Howard.

That night Tony watched as his home started burning. The firefighters were able to put out the fire, but the damage was done. Howard somehow knew it was Tony’s fault. He burst into tears the minute Howard started yelling at him. Normally he wouldn’t cry, but this time was different. Tony had done something serious, and Howard had yelled at him, asking him why he had to be such a freak. Maria had to stop him from saying something even worse, as if there was anything worse than hearing that from your own father at ten years old.

It took roughly six months for the rebuild and within that time Tony discovered his second power, the ability to hear voices. Of course he wasn’t exactly sure of the meaning behind them at first, because all they were was simple thoughts. Like: “What should we have for dinner tonight”, or occasionally he would have feelings that felt sudden and out of place. Like feeling hungry even though he just ate a full meal, or feeling tired even though seconds ago he felt wide awake.

 

 

Tony took another swig of his drink. He was sitting in his tower, in the lab, drowning in his own thoughts. He like the rest of the world was waiting to see what side the president would take. It didn’t take a lot of knowledge about the president to know that he would sign the law into effect. The damning Mutant Registration Act. Maybe it was karma for Tony taking part in the Superhuman Registration act. He was part of the reason that it came into existence before it got repealed.

There were small a handful of people who knew that Tony was a mutant. All it would take was for only one of them to turn him in. He already paid a few people off who knew about him, he threatened a couple of other people, and banged at least one of them. The only people who still threatened him were Coulson and Fury. They were the only ones at SHIELD who knew, thankfully, but Fury assured him, as long as Tony remained cooperative with SHIELD when they needed him to be his secret would be safe. Tony had no choice but to trust that.

The bell on the lab’s door rang causing Tony to jump. “Friday, I told you if anyone interrupted me I’d scrap you,” Or did he tell her he’d donate her to a community college, he was too drunk to remember or care. 

“You’re putting your health is at risk, therefore your last order has been overlooked. You may have been drunk when programming that line of code into me as well,” Did she sound more snarky than usual?

“I’m perfectly fine, what’s far from fine is that bell telling me that someone is trying to come in. I’m going to donate whichever avenger is ringing that bell to the zoo, where they can be constantly disturbed at any time of day,” he shouted at the door, forgetting in the moment that the room was soundproof and the only way the person on the other side wouldn’t be able to hear him unless he told Friday to turn on the intercom or he manually pressed the button at the door, or if he just opened the door which is what he was going to do because he really wanted to punch who was interrupting his lab time. 

He opened the door and Steve was standing there, with his arms crossed, “So you want to explain why you’ve locked yourself up in here for two days and blocked out access to everybody else?” There was another lab in the tower, it’s not like Peter or Bruce or anyone else needed this lab to do science, besides this lab was Tony’s personal lab.

“You finally agree to move back in and suddenly think that you can start demanding answers that concern my well being? Steve you’re in for a wild ride.” He stumbled but he began turning back to his table.

“How much have you had drink?” Did Tony really need to answer that? All Steve had to do is take a look at the empty bottles scattered around his stool. There were a lot. It was a mixture of beers, wines, and just plain whiskey. There were probably more than that laying around. He began to lift up the current bottle of… whatever it was he was working on drinking now and started drinking from it when he sat down. Steve came over and snagged it from him. “Tony I’d like to think that we’ve become friends again, and as your friend I’m cutting you off.” Friends. Tony scoffed at the word.

Tony tried to steal the bottle back but Steve’s grip was tight. “My father loved you you know… more than he ever loved me. You were the better creation, I was just one of his failures,” Tony hiccuped.

There was a moment of silence. That better not be pity. “Tony what is this about?”

“Every time I screwed up he never hesitated to tell me that I failed and then he’d always go on to tell me how perfect you were. You know he never told me he loved me? Or even approved of my achievements? I was smarter than everyone including Howard, and I was still a disappointment,” he started to wobble in his seat. Instead of sitting he rose and grabbed onto Steve to prevent himself from falling. He refused to let go of him “Dad was always there to bring me down. Ever since I came out to him, probably before that too…” 

“You told him you were bisexual?” Steve questioned. An angry look spread across his face, here Captain America was about to start ranting about the possibility of a homophobic Howard. He was too perfect to not be the perfect liberal. Of course he was too ignorant to understand. Howard probably wouldn’t care, or maybe he would, it didn’t matter, it’d just be adding to the reasons that ‘Tony Stark is a disappointment’.

“No, I mean when I showed him I had powers,” Tony looked down. “You won’t tell anyone will you Steve? That I’m one of them? That I’m one of the freaks,” Tony was practically hanging off of Steve now. He was still trying to reach for that bottle in his hand. He couldn’t even have prepared for Steve to shove him off that fast even if he was sober.


End file.
